T
he Wanganui street race is held on a
track that separates the men from
the boys. The morning of the 2017
running of the historic street race
started with hammering rain. It was
extremely slippery for the first two
practices but, thankfully, it dried out nicely for
the rest of the day. Qualifying came around
and I was feeling good and my riding was
getting a nice flow going. I was surprised when
I looked at the results to see I qualified in 3rd
place, which I was extremely happy with!
Going into race one I was feeling really good
and got an awesome start, sliding into first
for a while before hitting a curb and dropping
back to 4th. On that same lap I pushed hard to
take back 3rd position at Robert Holden corner.
By the third lap the leader had fallen off,
slotting me into 2nd which I held on to for the
rest of the race. I was pretty much speechless
after going from 10th to 2nd within a week and
knew I had a good chance at taking the overall.
In race 2, I pulled a huge wheelie off the
start line (quite surprising for such a little
bike) which dropped me to 5th. At this point
I had the adrenaline pumping and started to
carve up riders left right and centre; taking
4th, 3rd and then slotting into 2nd – all at
Robert Holden. While passing the winner
of race one, he tried squeezing round the
outside of me and ending up in the bales.
The winner of race 2 had crashed in the first
race, so this all gave me the overall win for
the Wanga nui Street race and Round 3 of
the Gixxer Cup, setting me up really well for
the rest of the series. I can’t wait for more!
Kiwi Rider’s Zak Fuller took second in both
races to win the day at Whanganui